Transliteration and Dates
The transliteration system of the third edition of The Encyclopaedia of Islam has been used, with the following changes:
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The pausal feminine ending is the prosodically more correct âah, not âa.
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Compound personal names with AllÄh are written as two words, as in Arabic orthography (Ê¿Abd AllÄh, Ê¿Ubayd AllÄh), not as one word (Ê¿AbdallÄh, Ê¿UbaydallÄh).
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An apostrophe is used to distinguish a combination of two consonants (as in Mudâhish, ghÄlatâhumÅ«) from a digraph (e.g., adhÄn, thalÄthah).
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Full transliteration is given for poetic and Qurâanic passages; for prose quotations pausal forms are generally used, but verbal endings and the accusative ending âan are usually given.
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In poetry, vowels in rhyme position are transliterated as long, in accordance with the rules of prosody, even when written short.
Islamic (Hijri, AH) and Christian (AD) dates are given, separated by a slash.2
Instead of the traditional AD, CE (âCommon Eraâ) is now often used to avoid explicit reference to Christianity. I see no reason for doing this. It is, after all, based on Christian reckoning, just as AH is based on the Islamic calendar.